Claudette Colbert

Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert in I Cover the Waterfront (1933)
Born	Lily Claudette Chauchoin
Height	5' 4½" (1.64 m)
Spouse(s)	Norman Foster (1928-1935) Dr. Joel Pressman (1935-his death in 1968)

Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 - July 30, 1996) was an Academy Award-winning and Golden Globe-winning French-American actress in Hollywood film, stage, television and radio. In 1999, she was ranked 12th by the American Film Institute in their list Greatest Female Stars of All Time.

Born in Paris and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, and with the advent of talking pictures progressed to film. She made a strong impression as a dramatic actress, and a little of her early roles portrayed her as a siren, but she was later acclaimed for her performances in several screwball comedies. Highly regarded for her abilities as an actress, she alternated between romantic comedies and dramas, and received Academy Award nominations in both film genres.

From the mid 1930s until the late 1940s, she was one of the most successful and highly paid performers in American cinema. Colbert was paired frequently with her most popular co-star, Fred MacMurray. She starred in numerous radio programs, and also played in some World War 2 movies. During the 1950s she continued to act in films and appeared in a number of television productions. She returned to the stage, making appearances sometimes from the 1950s until the 1980s. In her later years, she retired to her home in Barbados, where she died at the age of 92, following a series of small strokes.

Early years

Childhood

She was born Lily Claudette Chauchoin in Paris, France to Georges Claude Chauchoin (1867-1925), a banker, a diplomat, and his wife, the former Jeanne Loew (d. 1970). Her family emigrated to the United States when she was three years old and settled in New York City three years later, when her father encountered financial setbacks. Claudette was made a naturalized citizen of the United States.

Claudette grew up speaking both English and French, and attended New York City public schools. She had one brother, Charles, who used the surname Wendling and went on to become his sister's agent. Her mother and grandmother were feuding. Claudette's favorite was her grandmother, Marie, who also lived with the family. Her very first acting part was in As You Like It.

Claudette studied at Washington Irving High School, where her speech teacher, Alice Rossetter helped her overcome a slight lisp. Rossetter encouraged Claudette to audition for a play she had written. Claudette made stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in The Widow's Veil, at the age of fifteen. She planned an art career after high school graduation.

She then attended the Art Students League of New York and worked as a stenographer, a salesclerk in womens' clothing, and a French tutor in order to pay her expenses. She intended to become a fashion designer but after she attended a party with the playwright Anne Morrison she was offered a three-line role in Morrison's new play. She appeared on the Broadway stage in a small role in The Wild Westcotts (1923). That ended her art aspirations, and Colbert embarked on a stage career in 1925. She decided to pursue a career in the theater and adopted "Claudette Colbert" as her stage name two years after she got a bit part on Broadway. She had begun using the name Claudette instead of Lily in high school, and for her stage name she added her paternal grandmother's maiden name, Colbert.

Broadway

About the mid 1920s, she had signed five-year contract with producer Al Woods. Colbert appeared in the theater productions. She did ingenue roles on Broadway from 1923 through 1929. During her early years on stage, she fought against being typecast as a French maid, and received critical acclaim on Broadway in the production of The Barker (1927), playing a carnival snake charmer. Dynamo (1929) and See Naples and Die (1929) were unsuccessful.

In 1927, Claudette accepted an offer by First National to make her first film. After the Great Depression led to the closure of many theaters, Colbert made her first motion picture appearance in Frank Capra's unsuccessful For the Love of Mike (1927), her only silent film shot on location in New York, New York facilities, and now believed to be a lost film. It was a box-office disaster. Colbert recalled "I had no idea what I was doing, and I should never have played in silent pictures anyway. I wanted to talk!" Theatrical roles was an extreme scarcity. In 1928 Claudette signed film contract with Paramount which enabled her to continue stage career. Her screen career started in earnest early in 1929, after the arrival of sound. Her first talkie and first hit film was The Lady Lies (1929), and The Hole in the Wall (1929), in which she played a mixture of roles, co-starring another newcomer, Edward G. Robinson, was also successful. During this time she continued to work in the theater.

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures were looking for stage actors who could handle dialogue in the new "talkies" medium. Colbert's voice was highly regarded and her stage training allowed her to use it effectively in film. Her singing voice was also used in some of her early films.

She co-starred with Fredric March in Manslaughter (1930), and received positive reviews for her performance as a rich girl, jailed for manslaughter. The New York Times wrote, "It cannot be denied that Claudette Colbert – given an even chance – is capable of excellent acting." She would make a total of four films with March, including Dorothy Arzner's Honor Among Lovers (1931), which fared well at the box-office. She sang in her role opposite Maurice Chevalier in the Ernst Lubitsch musical The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. She eventually moved to Los Angeles. By 1932 she had appeared in some seventeen films, playing diverse roles in approximately four films per year.

Colbert's career prospects were enhanced when Cecil B. DeMille cast her as the Roman empress Poppaea in his historical epic and Jesse L. Lasky's last great work, The Sign of the Cross (1932), opposite Fredric March. In one of the scenes, she bathes in a marble pool filled with asses' milk. Claudette's milk-bath scene took a week to film. Director DeMille kept trying to see her nude when getting out of the bath but was disappointed by Colbert's assistants covering her with towels as she got out. Later the same year she played in The Phantom President (1932), with Jimmy Durante. Other successes of this period included Tonight Is Ours (1933) with Fredric March and Torch Singer (1933), with Ricardo Cortez. In 1933 Claudette renegotiated contract with Paramount; allowed to appear in films at other studios.

In 1934, Colbert appeared in four films, including two films for Cecil B. DeMille. Four Frightened People was an adventure drama that failed to find a substantial audience, however Cleopatra, opposite Warren William, and in which she played the title role, was a box office success. DeMille perceived Colbert as a femme fatale, and each of her three films with him included partial nudity, however Colbert did not wish to be portrayed as a siren and thereafter refused such roles.

Stardom

Comedy

Claudette was not enthused with the idea of the Frank Capra romantic comedy, It Happened One Night (1934, her first comedy), opposite Clark Gable. Her first film, For the Love of Mike (1927), had been directed by Frank Capra and was such a disaster that she vowed to never make another film with him, and agreed to appear in It Happened One Night only when her salary was doubled to $50,000 and on the condition that her part be completed in four weeks so she could take an already planned vacation.

Filming began in a tense atmosphere; Colbert and Gable agreed that the script was below standard, but soon established a friendly working relationship and found that the script was no worse than those of many of their earlier films. Both Gable and Capra enjoyed making the movie. She however continued to show her displeasure on the set.

Colbert baulked at pulling up her skirt to entice a passing driver to give a ride, complaining that it was unladylike. However, upon seeing the chorus girl who was brought in as her body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here. I'll do it. That's not my leg!" Colbert complained to her friend, "I just finished the worst picture in the world" in Sun Valley during a vacation. Capra recalled Colbert's dissatisfaction with the part, commenting, "Colbert fretted, pouted and argued about her part... she was a tartar, but a cute one"

Upon completion of the film, commenting later in her life, "Clark and I left wondering how the movie would be received. It was right in the middle of the Depression. People needed fantasy, they needed splendor and glamour, and Hollywood gave it to them. And here we were, looking a little seedy and riding on our bus".

The latter half of 1930s

Colbert then starred in Imitation of Life (1934), again opposite Warren William. Of the four films Colbert made in 1934, three of them – Cleopatra, Imitation of Life and It Happened One Night were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, with the latter winning the award. Colbert is the only actress to star in three films nominated for Best Picture in the same year (1934). In 1934 Claudette signed new two-year contract with Paramount; earned $5000 per week. In 1935 Claudette was named best-dressed actress in Hollywood. In 1936 Claudette negotiated new contract with Paramount which called for seven films at $150,000 per film.

Colbert's versatility was noted, as she was considered to have given effective performances in very diverse roles and the acclaim she received helped establish the most successful phase of Colbert's career. In 1935 and 1936 she was listed in the annual "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars", which was compiled from the votes of movie exhibitors throughout the U.S. for the stars that had generated the most revenue in their theaters over the previous year.

As far as her films go for 1935, her first was The Gilded Lily (1935). She was paired with Fred MacMurray. It was this film that established stardom for MacMurray. "I'll never forget how kind [Claudette] was. I didn't have the slightest idea what I was doing, but she was so patient with me. She worked and worked with me and got me through it." Fred MacMurray

She spent the rest of the 1930s alternating between romantic comedies and dramas: The Bride Came Home (1935), with MacMurray; She Married Her Boss (1935), with Melvyn Douglas; Under Two Flags (1936), with Ronald Colman; the costume drama, Maid of Salem (1937), again with MacMurray; Anatole Litvak's Tovarich (1937, which cast her as Russian royalty), with Charles Boyer; George Cukor's Zaza (1939), with Herbert Marshall; Midnight (1939, one of her best), in which she costarred with Don Ameche; It's a Wonderful World (1939), with James Stewart; and John Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk (1939, which cast her as a frontier wife), with Henry Fonda. "Colbert was the kind of professional it is always a joy to work with - never lets you down." Henry Fonda

Colbert requested Charles Boyer as her leading man in Private Worlds (1935). The It Happened One Night actress introduced popcorn to the movies in 1935.

In 1938 she was reported to be the highest paid performer in Hollywood with a salary of $426,924. Ernst Lubitsch's comedy Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938), opposite Gary Cooper, her former co-star in His Woman (1931), was another of her successes during these years.

During the 1930s, she distrusted the new technicolor film process, and feared that she would not photograph well in color. Although she appeared in first color film, Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), she preferred to be photographed in black-and-white.

Later film career

A rollicking Preston Sturges' screwball comedy The Palm Beach Story (1942, Some say this film is Colbert at her comic best), opposite Joel McCrea and Academy Award nominated (for Best Picture) Since You Went Away (1944), opposite Jennifer Jones were among her notable films from this period.

Other films of this period include Boom Town (1940), again with Clark Gable, the actress' favorite film Arise, My Love (1940, which cast her as such weeper), with Ray Milland, Remember the Day (1941), where she played a schoolteacher, No Time for Love (1943), once again with Fred MacMurray, Guest Wife (1945), with Don Ameche, Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), with Orson Wells, Without Reservations (1946, which cast her as an authoress), directed by Mervyn LeRoy and co-starring John Wayne, the psychological drama The Secret Heart (1946), with Walter Pidgeon, the thriller Sleep, My Love (1948), Three Came Home (1950), in which she portrayed a prisoner of war, and last screen romantic comedy Let's Make It Legal (1951). Colbert had to do some clever footwork to keep up with one of her most effective screen partners, Don Ameche. Claudette managed to escape pigeonholing in Hollywood by taking on a variety of parts in films.

In addition, Colbert worked with the top directors in the industry: John M. Stahl, Wesley Ruggles, Gregory La Cava, Frank Lloyd, Mitchell Leisen, Woody Van Dyke, Henry King, Sam Wood and Douglas Sirk.

During World War 2, Colbert continued to make light comedies (No Time for Love and Guest Wife for example) but also starred in patriotic exercises such as So Proudly We Hail! (1943, which cast her as the head nurse) and Since You Went Away. WWII ones show only the ‘clean’ American women, the Claudette Colbert types on the homefront.

In 1945 she left Paramount Pictures after having spent most of her starring career there; her last film under contract was Practically Yours (1944) opposite Fred MacMurray.

Colbert was teamed most often with Fred MacMurray, whose perpetually bewildered face disguised the fact that he had one of the best senses of comedic timing in the business. Her tough veneer dissolved when she fell for this overwhelmingly decent guy. Colbert and MacMurray would do seven films together over thirteen years, including Universal's big hit money maker was The Egg and I (1947). The film was the twelfth most profitable American film of the 1940s, and one of the most significant commercial successes of Colbert's career. On the basis of this success, Colbert made the "Quigley Poll of the Top Ten Money Making Stars" for the last time, after being absent since 1936. The last costarring movie of Colbert and MacMurray was Family Honeymoon (1949).

Several of her late 1940s films did well enough at the boxoffice to sustain her career, Colbert's film career gradually declined in quality, activity and scope. Her films became less interesting in the early 1950s, and her starring career petered out.

Wartime mother

In Since You Went Away, Colbert played a middle aged woman, a mother of two teenaged daughters, trying to keep her family together while her husband was away fighting in World War II. The film marked the first time she played a more mature character; producer David O. Selznick rightly predicted that Colbert would feel threatened by the idea of playing an older character. Selznick had been impressed by Colbert's performance in So Proudly We Hail! (1943) as well as her box-office clout, commenting that "even light little comedies with her have never done under a million and a half." He enlisted the aid of Hedda Hopper in convincing Colbert to accept the part. Hopper later recalled asking her, "You don't expect to be an ingenue all your life, do you?" Claudette did not eschew mother roles in such films as the moving if overly idealized Mrs. Miniver in America saga. In addition, Colbert was assured that the film was an important production, and that "Selznick only makes good films".

Director John Cromwell later noted that Colbert was "level headed, very professional and with no temperament."

Released in June 1944, the film became a substantial success and grossed almost 5 million dollars in the United States. The critic James Agee praised aspects of the film, but particularly Colbert's performance, writing "Selznick has given Claudette Colbert the richest, biggest role of her career. She rewards him consistently with smooth Hollywood formula acting, and sometimes – in collaboration with Mr. (Joseph) Cotten – with flashes of acting that are warmer and more mature."

Left profile

Colbert was very particular regarding the way she appeared on screen. She believed that her face was difficult to light and photograph, and was obsessed with not showing her "bad" side, the right, to the camera, because of a small bump from a nose broken in childhood. In addition, she was concerned that the height of her cheeks were different. Scenes showing Colbert's face from the right do not support this, but such shots are hard to find. The vast majority of movie shots taken of Claudette Colbert were of her left profile. Thus dubbing her "the dark side of the moon".

Her reluctance to be filmed from the right side became well known in Hollywood; Doris Day once quipped, "God wasted half a face on Claudette."

During filming of Since You Went Away (1944), David O. Selznick expressed frustration with some of her demands. He wrote in a memo that they had rebuilt several sets "because of her refusal to have the right side of her face photographed, on top of which we have to pay her not only a fabulous salary, but also give her two days off a month, which works out to $5000 every four weeks for doing absolutely nothing, and now she's demanding three.... Tell her there's a war on and we all have to make some sacrifices."

Critical comments

During filming of So Proudly We Hail! (1943), a rift occurred between Colbert and Paulette Goddard when Colbert overheard a remark made by Goddard in an interview. Asked which of her costars she preferred, Goddard had replied, "Veronica, I think. After all, we are closer in age". Veronica Lake commented that Colbert "flipped" and "was at Paulette's eyes at every moment" and said that they continued their feud throughout the duration of filming. Goddard (33 at the time) was actually closer to Colbert's age (40) than Veronica Lake's (24).

On and off screen, Claudette always looked a lot younger than she was. She took good care of herself. "I try to live sensibly. I sleep well, eat well, and have only one drink a day. I have managed to stay at 108 pounds - which is what I weighed years ago. I eat three meals a day, but if I'm working in a play, I need four meals a day for additional energy." Claudette was 5 feet 4 and 1/2 inches tall (1.64 m) and her measurements: 32 1/2B-25-34. She was also considered a shrewd business woman.

At the height of her success, Colbert was noted for her dedication to her career. Irene Dunne commented that she lacked Colbert's "terrifying ambition" and noted that if Colbert finished work on a film on a Saturday, she would be looking for a new project by Monday. Hedda Hopper once wrote that Colbert placed her career ahead of everything "save possibly her marriage", and described her as the "smartest and canniest" of Hollywood actresses, with a strong sense of what was best for her, and a "deep rooted desire to be in shape, efficient and under control".

Other works

From 1935 to 1954, she starred in numerous programs of CBS Network's Lux Radio Theater, one of the popular dramatic radio shows at the time. "Those Lux radio programs were fun and I always enjoyed doing them." Claudette

Claudette was the subject of a magazine advertisement for Coca Cola (1933), Lucky Strike cigarettes (1938) and Chesterfield cigarettes (1949). She also appeared in Maxwell House Coffee TV commercials and billboard advertisements in 1963.

Claudette sang in a number of her movies, including: The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), Torch Singer (1933), Under Two Flags (1936), Tovarich (1937), Boom Town (1940), Arise, My Love (1940), Since You Went Away (1944).

Her salary was She Married Her Boss (1935): $50,000, The Bride Comes Home (1935): $150,000, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938): $150,000, Since You Went Away (1944): $265,000.

Colbert remained a top money-making star until her last big hit, The Egg and I (1947), after which she lost some footing, partly because of producers' unwillingness to meet her demands that (under doctor's orders) she could only film a short time each day (her doctor was her husband). By the 1950s, her career had begun to wind down.

From 1952 to 1954, she went to work in England and France in fewer films and theater. She wanted new challenges and was interested in seeing how foreign artists and technicians made films. In 1951 Claudette made TV debut on The Jack Benny Program. In 1954 Claudette made pact with CBS to star in five teleplays after successful appearance in The Royal Family. From 1954 to 1960, she appeared in a number of programs in the infant medium of television, such as Blithe Spirit (1956). In 1959 Last major acting role on TV for 25 years, in The Bells of St. Mary's. She came back to the stage in earnest in 1958. She'd stopped making motion pictures by the middle of that decade. Her last starring film was the western Texas Lady (1955), and one-shot return to film: her last major appearance was as Troy Donahue's mother in 1961's soap opera, Parrish. The Last movie was unsuccessful. She was fifty eight years old.

Colbert later commented, "I never thought of my career as the primary thing in my life," and "I looked upon acting as a job, and now, frankly, I regret it. I think of all the things I could have done. I just let parts come to me. I never went after them." Her heroines were two older actresses Ina Claire and Lynn Fontanne.

In 1969 she expressed her intention to write a book entitled "How to Run a House" for her friend Bennett Cerf's Random House Press. This project did not eventuate, Colbert did not write an autobiography.

Replacements

Colbert was the last choice for the role of Ellie Andrews in It Happened One Night (1934). Myrna Loy was originally offered the roles, but she felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it is one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the final version bore little resemblance to the script she was offered. Miriam Hopkins, Constance Bennett and Margaret Sullavan had each rejected the part, Bette Davis was unavailable, and Carole Lombard turned Ellie down. Frank Capra was unable to get any of the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with only two costumes.

She replaced Clara Bow in Manslaughter (1930), Barbara Stanwyck in Midnight (1939), and Olivia de Havilland in Three Came Home (1950).

Claudette was originally intended to star in The Women (1939) as Mary Haines, but MGM bought the rights to the play as a vehicle for Norma Shearer, who was given the role. Claudette turned down the role of Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940) and the part went to Rosalind Russell. Claudette turned down the role of Jean Harrington in The Lady Eve (1941) despite director Preston Sturges' personal interest in her playing the part, and it went to Barbara Stanwyck. In 1948, Colbert was replaced by Katharine Hepburn in the leading role in State of the Union after disagreements with Frank Capra.

In 1949, Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote the part of Margo Channing in All About Eve for Colbert, feeling that she best represented the style of older actress he envisioned for the part. Mankiewicz admired her "sly wit and sense of class" and felt that she would play Margo as an "elegant drunk", who would easily win the support of the audience. Before filming started, Colbert severely injured her back, and although 20th Century Fox postponed the production of All About Eve for two months while she convalesced, she was still not fit enough to take the role and was replaced by Bette Davis. Years later Mankiewicz commented that he still imagined how effectively Colbert would have embodied the role. Giving up the part was a blow for Colbert. Colbert recalled, "I can say immodestly that I'm a very good comedienne. But I was always fighting that image too. I just never had the luck to play bitches. Those are the only parts that ever register really." She appeared with Joseph L. Mankiewicz as Co-Host in the 28th Annual Academy Awards (1956).

Final years

Colbert returned to the stage in 1951 at the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, opposite Noel Coward in his Island Fling. The play, originally written for Gertrude Lawrence, was not a success and lasted for only eight performances.

She returned to Broadway in 1956 to replace Margaret Sullavan in Janus. In 1958, she appeared with Charles Boyer, in the long-running The Marriage Go-Round. This was followed by Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe (1961), which after a try-out in Wilmington, Delaware, lasted for only one performance on Broadway, The Irregular Verb to Love (1963) and, in Miami, Diplomatic Relations (1965) opposite Brian Aherne. Her stage career was interrupted when her husband died in 1968. She returned to work in Fabulous Forties (1972), in Philadelphia, A Community of Two (1974), in Chicago, The Kingfisher (1979) in which she co-starred with Rex Harrison, A Talent for Murder (1981), with Jean-Pierre Aumont and Frederick Lonsdale's Aren't We All? (1985) in which she co-starred again with Harrison first in London and then on Broadway.

Awards and recognition

Colbert won the Academy Award for Best Actress for It Happened One Night and was also nominated in 1936 for Private Worlds, with Charles Boyer, where she played a staff member at a mental institution and in 1945 for Since You Went Away.

In 1935, after her nomination for It Happened One Night, Colbert decided not to attend and instead, planned to take a cross-country train trip. After she was named the winner, studio chief Harry Cohn sent someone to drag her off the train, which had not left the station, and take her to the ceremony. Colbert arrives wearing a two-piece traveling suit that she had Paramount Pictures costume designer Travis Banton make for her trip.

She was nominated for Broadway's 1959 Tony Award as Best Actress (Dramatic) for The Marriage-Go-Round, and she won the 1980 Sarah Siddons Award for Best Actress to play in Chicago for the season 1979-80 for her performance in the play, The Kingfisher.

In 1984, Colbert received a tribute from the Film Society of Lincoln Center. In 1987, she returned to TV in two-part film, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, opposite Ann-Margret, and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Mini-series or a Special. In 1988, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture made for TV.

In 1984, a building at the old Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York, where she had made ten films in early career, was renamed in her honour. In 1989, she was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, and in 1991, her career was celebrated by New York University. She had a long lasting career in both Hollywood and on Broadway.

During her career, Claudette Colbert appeared in more than sixty films. For her contribution to the motion picture industry, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6812 Hollywood Blvd.

Personal life

Marriages

Colbert married twice. Her first husband was Norman Foster, an actor and later director, whom she married in 1928. She co-starred with him on the stage The Barker (1927), and in the film Young Man of Manhattan (1930). Colbert did not live with him and kept marriage a secret for many years. They divorced in Mexico in 1935. According to the account of the divorce in the New York Times, published on 31 August 1935, "Some secrecy surrounded the proceedings, for while Mr. Feldman (Colbert's agent) apparently was at liberty to tell of the divorce being granted, he said he could not tell where in Mexico it was obtained." The report further stated that "The Fosters created something of a sensation when they disclosed that they were trying to remain happily married while living in separate homes. But even this experiment apparently failed." Foster went on to marry the actress Sally Blane, a sister of Loretta Young.

Four months after her divorce, on 24 December 1935, Colbert married Joel Jay Pressman (1901-1968), a Los Angeles surgeon. About the mid 1950s, they moved together to Palm Springs, California, where Colbert operated a store for a time before she moved to New York. Colbert did not have any children.

Oceanfront home

Inspired by a visit to Noel Coward's villa in Jamaica, Colbert fell in love with the Caribbean. She spent half of each year at Speightstown, Barbados, from the first half of 1960s, in her vacation home called "Bellerive". There she established a reputation as a hostess. Ronald Reagan was one of her guests during his presidency, as were Kirk Douglas, Jack Benny, Rex Harrison, Slim Keith and Lillian Hellman. She worked with Reagan in TV Program General Electric Theater - The Dark, Dark Hours (1954).

The Reagans stayed in the small guest house she had built on the property for the honeymoon of Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow. However, her registered domicile remained the United States. "Pamela Harriman, the American ambassador in Paris, was a great friend" said Margaret Leacock, a friend who persuaded Colbert to move to the former British colony, Barbados in 1960.

Colbert suffered a stroke in 1990 and never fully recovered; it curtailed her daily swims and speedboat rides.

Death

She died at her oceanfront home in Barbados at the age of 92, following a series of small strokes during the last two years of her life. She was interred there in the Parish of St. Peter Cemetery beside her husband and mother. A requiem mass was later held at St. Vincent Ferrer church in New York City.

Most of Colbert's estate, estimated at $3.5 million and including her Manhattan apartment and villa in Barbados, was left to a friend, Helen O'Hagan (1931—), a retired director of corporate relations at Saks Fifth Avenue, whom Colbert had met in 1961 on the set of the actress's last film. The villa was later purchased by David Geffen. Claudette's Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934) was offered for auction by Christie's on June 9, 1997. No bids were made for it, and it was passed in.

After Colbert's death, rumors about the actress's alleged lesbian relationships, including supposed affairs with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, began to circulate in the international media. In response, Colbert's friend Helen O'Hagan told the New York Daily News that the actress barely knew Dietrich or Garbo and that Colbert was "a man's lady".

Legacy

Colbert is cited by modern film historians as a leading female exponent of screwball comedy, along with such actresses as Carole Lombard, Myrna Loy, Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne and Jean Arthur. In her comedy films, she invariably played shrewd and self reliant women, but unlike many of her contemporaries, Colbert rarely engaged in physical comedy, with her characters more likely to be observers and commentators.

In her early career, Colbert played sweet ingenue roles. She always had work, but did not make much of an impression on audiences. Screen siren Claudette Colbert's appeal was infused with just enough Old World cunning to make her for danger; perhaps this is while she is the liveliest character in the movie. Claudette was best known for her portrayals in the screwball comedies which she starred in during the late thirties and during the forties. Although she seldom played strictly dramatic roles, her performances in World War II films made a strong impression. On-screen, the actress exuded trademark bangs, velvety purring voice, confident intelligence and subtle gracefulness. But whether comedies or dramas, most of these films were undistinguished, although her performances were admired.

"Claudette Colbert brought a new kind of tongue-in-cheek vivacity to the sound cinema which sustained her as a major movie star for two decades. Her unique combination of physical assets--sleek appearance, trim figure, sparkling heart-shaped face, and throaty, vibrant voice--boosted her to the top ranks of cinema popularity. No matter what the role, she was always a lady. With her innate reticence, charm and poise, she was unsuitable to portray anyone common or vulgar. Her mystique was as alluring as Marlene Dietrich's, but because she best fitted the stereotype of the practical-minded modern woman, she never attained the living legend status reserved for those who play, and seem to be, aloof godesses of physical and intellectual perfection." --James Robert Parish, quoted in "The Paramount Pretties"

Filmography

Features

• For the Love of Mike (1927)
• The Lady Lies (1929)
• The Hole in the Wall (1929)
• Young Man of Manhattan (1930)
• The Big Pond (1930)
• Manslaughter (1930)
• Grande mare, La (1930)
• Mysterious Mr. Parkes (1930)
• Honor Among Lovers (1931)
• The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
• Secrets of a Secretary (1931)
• His Woman (1931)
• The Wiser Sex (1932)
• Misleading Lady (1932)
• The Man from Yesterday (1932)
• Make Me a Star (1932) Cameo
• The Phantom President (1932)
• The Sign of the Cross (1932)
• Tonight Is Ours (1933)
• I Cover the Waterfront (1933)
• Three-Cornered Moon (1933)
• Torch Singer (1933)
• Four Frightened People (1934)
• Cleopatra (1934)
• It Happened One Night (1934)
• Imitation of Life (1934)
• The Gilded Lily (1935)
• Private Worlds (1935)
• She Married Her Boss (1935)
• The Bride Comes Home (1935)
• Under Two Flags (1936)
• Maid of Salem (1937)
• I Met Him in Paris (1937)

• Tovarich (1937)
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
• Zaza (1939)
• Midnight (1939)
• It's a Wonderful World (1939)
• Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
• Boom Town (1940)
• Arise, My Love (1940)
• Skylark (1941)
• Remember the Day (1941)
• The Palm Beach Story (1942)
• No Time for Love (1943)
• So Proudly We Hail! (1943)
• Since You Went Away (1944)
• Practically Yours (1944)
• Guest Wife (1945)
• Tomorrow Is Forever (1946)
• Without Reservations (1946)
• The Secret Heart (1946)
• The Egg and I (1947)
• Sleep, My Love (1948)
• Family Honeymoon (1949)
• Bride for Sale (1949)
• Three Came Home (1950)
• The Secret Fury (1950)
• Thunder on the Hill (1951)
• Let's Make It Legal (1951)
• The Planter's Wife (1952)
• Daughters of Destiny (1954)
• Texas Lady (1955)
• Royal Affairs in Versailles (1957)
• Parrish (1961)

Short Subjects

• Hollywood on Parade (1932)
• Hollywood on Parade No. 9 (1933)
• The Hollywood You Never See (1934)
• The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)
• Breakdowns of 1938 (1938) Tovarich outtakes
• Hollywood Goes to Town (1938)
• Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 6 (1942)
• Garabatos Claudette Colbert (1944) Animation

Television

• The Jack Benny Program: The Claudette Colbert and Basil Rathbone Show (1951)
• General Electric Theater: The Dark, Dark Hours (1954) / The Last Town Car, Part 1 (1958) / The Last Town Car, Part 2 (1958)
• The Best of Broadway: The Royal Family (1954) / The Guardsman (1955)
• Climax!: The White Carnation (1954) / Private Worlds (1955) / The Deliverance of Sister Cecilia (1955)
• The Ford Television Theatre: Magic Formula (1955) / While We're Young (1955)
• Letter to Loretta: A Pattern of Deceit (1955)
• The Colgate Comedy Hour: Episode #6.9 (1955) Presenter
• Ford Star Jubilee: Blithe Spirit (1956)
• Robert Montgomery Presents: After All These Years (1956)
• The 28th Annual Academy Awards (1956) Co-Host & Presenter: Best Foreign Language Film
• The Steve Allen Show: Episode #2.3 (1956) / Episode #3.31(1958) / Episode #4.11 (1958)
• What's My Line?: Episode dated 30 September 1956 / Episode dated 20 September 1959
• Playhouse 90: One Coat of White (1957)
• Telephone Time: Novel Appeal (1957)
• General Motors 50th Anniversary Show (1957)
• Suspicion: The Last Town Car (1958)
• Colgate Theatre: Welcome to Washington (1958)
• Frontier Justice: Blood in the Dust (1959)
• The Bells of St. Mary's (1959)
• The 13th Annual Tony Awards (1959) Presenter
• Zane Grey Theater: Blood in the Dust (1957) / So Young the Savage Land (1960)
• The American Film Institute Salute to Frank Capra (1982)
• The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987)
• The Kennedy Center Honors: A Celebration of the Performing Arts: (1982) / (1989)

Lux Radio Theater

• Holiday (03/10/1935) opposite Eric Dressler
• The Barker (07/20/1936) opposite Walter Huston
• The Gilded Lily (01/11/1937) opposite Fred MacMurray
• Hands Across The Table (05/03/37 1937) opposite Joel McCrea
• Alice Adams (01/03/1938) opposite Fred MacMurray
• It Happened One Night (03/20/1939) opposite Clark Gable
• The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (06/19/1939) opposite William Powell
• The Awful Truth (09/11/1939) opposite Cary Grant
• Midnight (05/20/1940) opposite Don Ameche
• His Girl Friday (09/30/1940) opposite Fred MacMurray
• The Shop Around The Corner (06/23/1941) opposite Don Ameche
• Skylark (02/02/1942) opposite Ray Milland
• Once Upon A Honeymoon (04/12/1943) opposite Brian Aherne
• So Proudly We Hail (11/01/1943) opposite Veronica Lake
• Magnificient Obsession (11/13/1944) opposite Don Ameche
• Practically Yours (08/27/1945) opposite Ray Milland
• Tomorrow Is Forever (05/06/1946) opposite Van Heflin
• Without Reservations (08/26/1946) opposite Robert Cummings
• The Egg And I (05/05/1947) opposite Fred MacMurray
• Family Honeymoon (04/04/1949) opposite Fred MacMurray
• Family Honeymoon (04/23/1951) opposite Fred MacMurray
• Thunder On The Hill (11/09/1953) opposite Barbara Rush
• The Corn Is Green (05/17/1954) opposite Cameron Mitchell

NBC Blue Network (1934-1935); CBS (1935-1954); Cecil B. DeMille was the host of the series each Monday evening from June 1, 1936, until January 22, 1945. William Keighley was the new permanent host, a post he held from late 1945 through mid-1955.

Broadway stage performances

• The Wild Westcotts (Dec 24, 1923 - Jan 1924)
• A Kiss in a Taxi (Aug 25, 1925 - Oct 1925)
• The Ghost Train (Aug 25, 1926 - Oct 1926)
• The Pearl of Great Price (Nov 1, 1926 - Nov 1926)
• The Barker (Jan 18, 1927 - Jul 1927)
• The Mulberry Bush (Oct 26, 1927 - Nov 1927)
• La Gringa (Feb 1, 1928 - Feb 1928)
• Within the Law (Mar 5, 1928 - Mar 1928)
• Fast Life (Sep 26, 1928 - Oct 1928)
• Tin Pan Alley (Nov 1, 1928 - Dec 1928)
• Dynamo (Feb 11, 1929 - Mar 1929)
• See Naples and Die (Sep 24, 1929 - Nov 1929)
• Janus (1956 - Jun 30, 1956)
• The Marriage Go-Round (Oct 29, 1958 - Feb 13, 1960)
• Julia, Jake and Uncle Joe (Jan 28, 1961 - Jan 28, 1961)
• The Irregular Verb to Love (Sep 17, 1963 - Dec 28, 1963)
• The Kingfisher (Dec 6, 1978 - May 13, 1979)
• A Talent for Murder (Oct 1, 1981 - Dec 6, 1981)
• Aren't We All? (Apr 29, 1985 - Jul 21, 1985)

Soundtrack

• The Smiling Lieutenant (1931): While Hearts Are Singing / Breakfast Table Love / Jazz Up Your Lingerie
• Torch Singer (1933): Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love / Don't Be a Cry Baby / It's a Long Dark Night / Lullaby (Sail Baby Sail) / Give Me Liberty or Give Me Love / Don't Be a Cry Baby / It's a Long Dark Night
• Under Two Flags (1936): One-Two-Three-Four-Hey!
• Tovarich (1937): Chto Mnie Gore
• Boom Town (1940): Polly Wolly Doodle
• Arise, My Love (1940): DREAM LOVER
• Since You Went Away (1944): Together / Kaiser-Walzer (Emperor Waltz) op.437 / Happy Birthday to You

References

• Claudette Colbert ( A Pyramid illustrated history of the movies ) (1976), William K. Everson, Pyramid Publications
• Claudette Colbert : An Illustrated Biography (1985), Lawrence J. Quirk, Random House Value Publishing
• Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion, Eighth Edition (1985), Leslie Halliwell
• Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia: Career Profiles of More than 2000 Actors and Filmmakers, Past and Present (1994), Leonard Maltin, Dutton Adult
• The Film Encyclopedia, Third Edition (1998), Ephraim Katz, Collins
• AMC Classic Movie Companion (1999), Robert Moses, Hyperion
• Leonard Maltin's 2002 Movie and Video Guide (2001), Leonard Maltin, Signet

External links

• Claudette Colbert at IMDb
• Claudette Colbert at the TCM Movie Database
• Claudette Colbert at the Internet Broadway Database
• Template:Find A Grave
• Claudette Colbert at Classic Movie Favorites Tribute site: galleries, bio, filmography and more.
• Claudette Colbert - Moviefone